City police looking to speak to, hear from public at BRZ town hall
By Sam Leishman - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on April 9, 2025.
Lethbridge’s police chief is looking forward to a robust discussion during tonight’s town hall meeting.
The Downtown Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ) will be hosting Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh and Sgt. Ryan Darroch at the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association from 5-7 p.m. They will be presenting the most recent crime statistics, explaining what actions the police service has been taking lately and answering questions from the audience.
Mehdizadeh plans to point out in his report that overall crime has been on a steady decline for the last four to five years. He says that’s due to a number of new initiatives, including adding more officers to the Downtown Policing Unit (DPU) and a large sweep last year that targeted outstanding warrants and prolific offenders.
Mehdizadeh also says the number of deaths related to opioid overdoses dropped significantly last year, and narcan deployments are way down among the DPU and The Watch.
“For example, our Watch volunteers and team leaders used narcan 65 times on overdose cases in 2023, and in 2024, that number went down to 16,” he says. “The issue is we still have opioid use, drug use and these activities, but we are seeing significant improvements compared to a few years ago.”
But all that positive news comes with some negative, as well. It’s something that Mehdizadeh says he won’t be shying away from during the town hall.
While Lethbridge will always have to deal with issues regarding homeless encampments, mental health, addiction and crime in some capacity, he’s ready and willing to foster honest dialogue with the community.
“I think it’s important for people to hear that from the Chief and police,” he says. “At the same time, I want to hear from people, as well. If you’re doing a lot in one area and citizens want something different, we have to listen to them and be agile and reactive to what their expectations are, as long as they are realistic.”
Those wanting to attend tonight’s town hall are asked to RSVP through the BRZ website. Admission is free.
10-9
“While Lethbridge will always have to deal with issues regarding homeless encampments, mental health, addiction and crime in some capacity, he’s ready and willing to foster honest dialogue with the community.”
I do not have much faith and won’t be attending! A waste of time when you do not deal with the issues around our businesses by allowing these criminals who hang out all night committing crimes, costing us more just to conduct business, as we attempt to bring customers into this atmosphere where they see our park filled with people openly using drugs and intimidate people walking through the park. Our businesses are all scarred from graffiti, which is never completely removed as well and none of the bylaws from bylaw 6280 are ever enforced. Words are cheap! We are all tired of not seeing laws enforced downtown and the number of vacant businesses can attest to the fear of people investing in a business in this area.
We need police who are allowed to do their jobs and enforce the laws and want change! These sessions are a PR action and there is more that can be done!
Last year two of the highest crime areas were downtown, #1 the shelter, #2 the gas station on 6th ave and 6th street, yet you didn’t have any people patrolling overnight from the downtown police unit when the highest number of crimes ocurred! That just doesn’t make any sense and is one reason why many of us are angry!
You didn’t take our complaints seriously used excuses as to why you didn’t focus the highest crime areas. Nothing was done until we came in numbers to the Police Commission and expressed our anger. Shortly after actions were taken that did make a difference. That is why we know more police action helps! We want our downtown back!
We do not get big paychecks for the hours we put in and when damages happen to our business, it can take months out of our revenues to make the repairs since we cannot pass it on to our customers, while trying to keep them coming downtown.
You just don’t get that!
Many have given up calling in to report crime they see because in many cases they get referred to the online reporting system that is time consuming and nothing gets done about, the criminals rarely get caught! That is one reason why your stats are showing a decrease in crime!
I know many are frustrated and tired of the issues on our streets, but we all need to continue to call or report the crimes downtown so they can collect those statistics and plan for the resources needed.
I have been completely frustrated after a long battle for change, and have tried to walk away several times.
Right now we see the start of issues downtown as the whether warms, people return to the streets from where ever they were housed in the winter and I have already witnessed in the last few weeks increases in crime and other issues. Where will all of those who stay in the shelter go in the day, with the shelter now doubled in size?
Then there are those who have been already housed, but hang out on the streets all day and night, and go to their residence once in a while! And the ones who refuse to be housed because the streets are their area of operations to commit their crimes! We have not seen the regular summer increases on our streets yet!
I plan on attending and voicing my concerns and will be reporting all crimes in progress whether LPS has time to respond or not. We need to keep up pushing for change, or it will not happen.
I am firm in believing that “what happens on our streets is what we allow to happen on our streets” and over the last 8 years I have been told many times that we couldn’t get them close this thing or that thing that was increasing issues on our streets, but we got them closed and we got an encampment strategy put in place, but that would not have been done if we just said “whats the point, there is nothing I can do” . . . we did it and you can do it but you have to attend sessions like this, and attend Police Commission meetings to express concerns and fight for your city and your downtown!
We have a say! Attend this meeting, express your concerns and applaud the efforts made by Sgt. Darroch and his team who have faced an uphill battle to bring change due to decisions made by leadership in both City Hall administration and LPS.
The members who are responding to calls want what we want and do their best, while undermanned! The Downtown Police Unit was down to only a few members last year in an area that saw the highest crime rates and they literally ran from one incident to another! They have always had my respect!
We can do better, but that decision comes from the top! We have dedicated members who want what we want! The federal government has been a problem and told the Crown Prosecutors not to prosecute certain crimes, but there are other laws/bylaws and other ways to deal the problems by enforcing other laws.
Where there is a will, there is a way . . . is there is will??
It was a good info session and I was sad to see that there was only 12-15 people there! I know everybody is burned out and tired of this, but change comes when people are involved.
If you don’t get involved, then you shouldn’t complain!